2/29/2012 Listening Lounge

We'll close out Black History Month with this documentary about the long, storied history African-Americans in Chicago's meatpacking industry and the formation of the Packinghouse Workers Union. It's an engaging and sound-rich account containing many interviews with former workers -- including Addie Wyatt. Addie started working as a meat packer in 1941. It was during this time that she became increasingly involved with the United Packinghouse and Food and Alliance Workers Union. In 1953 Wyatt was elected vice president of her branch, Local 56, and became the first black woman to hold senior office in an American labor union.